The Main Event Winner for XL Winter Event #43: $500,000 Main Event will be Crowned Today
It took nearly 10 hours on Sunday to play down from the 2,326 total entries to the final nine, but Russian player "bloodny" bagged the chip lead going into the final table with more than 17 million chips. The lion's share of the $546,610 prize pool, nearly 10% above the posted guarantee of $500,000, is still to be awarded here on the final table, with some $247,832 still to be handed out.
Two other players bagged more than 10 million chips at the end of Day 1. Fellow Russian player "D.Bogachev" bagged the 3rd place stack of just under 11 million, but Lithuanian "Eg1D1" will start Day 2 with the 2nd stack of more than 11.6 million.
Hampshire, England's Stephen "Steve00085" Burt bagged the 4th place stack for the final table with just over 6 million. Burt only has a few live cashes on his Hendon Mob resume but has banked more than half a million dollars using various names online, including "Steve00085" here on 888poker. According to PocketFives, he's won almost $80,000 on 888poker, so a win here today would nearly double his lifetime total for the client.
Among the other players to make the final nine are Irish poker author and pro Dara "Doked" O'Kearney. O'Kearney recently published a definitive tome on ICM, so he'll be looking to put that knowledge to work today to chip up from his current 5th place stack.
Canadian "alexos888" bagged up less than 5 million from Day 1 action, but is one of the more accomplished online players in the mix for Day 2. They have more than $2.25 million in online wins, with $835,000 of that coming on 888poker. Their biggest online score to date is just over $75,000, so a win today would nearly equal that personal best.
The Final Table of Event #43: $500,000 Main Event
| Seat | Player | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stephen "Steve00085" Burt | United Kingdom | 6,167,321 |
| 2 | Eg1D1 | Lithuania | 11,691,296 |
| 3 | alexos888 | Canada | 4,541,336 |
| 4 | Dara "Doked" O'Kearney | Ireland | 5,734,509 |
| 5 | D.Bogachev | Russia | 10,844,078 |
| 6 | bloodny | Russia | 17,490,705 |
| 7 | Marcmks16 | Sweden | 3,110,958 |
| 8 | chrissop14 | United Kingdom | 3,425,337 |
| 9 | sergebezb | Estonia | 6,850,460 |
The average stack coming into the final table today is sitting at 7.8 million chips, which translates to 26 big blinds in the starting level of 150,000/300,000/37,500. Sweden's "Marcmks16" will be the one with the most work to do today, starting the day with just over 10 bigs, but "chrissop14" doesn't have that much more, so expect some early action from the small stacks today.
There is more than $71,000 up top today for the winner, but nearly $250,000 total it still left to be won. Five players will pocket more than $20,000 from today's event, but everyone coming back today will take home at least $6,122. See below for the full remaining payouts.
The Final Table Prizes for Event #43: $500,000 Main Event
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | $71,278 |
| 2 | $51,709 |
| 3 | $37,443 |
| 4 | $27,331 |
| 5 | $20,115 |
| 6 | $14,758 |
| 7 | $10,932 |
| 8 | $8,144 |
| 9 | $6,122 |
The action for the XL Winter Event #43: $500,000 Main Event gets going at 14:30 ET today with full coverage here on PokerNews, as well as cards-up action hosted by Nick Wealthall and David Tuchman over on 888pokerTV.